Bukayo Saka’s first goal as an Arsenal substitute – scored just seven minutes into his return from a three-month injury lay-off – guided the Gunners to a vital victory over Fulham at the Emirates Stadium this evening.
The England winger’s absence has been keenly felt as Arsenal slipped twelve points behind Liverpool in the Premier League title race but he wasted little time in marking his earlier than expected return by nodding in from close range to double the home side’s lead after great play from Gabriel Martinelli, who mesmerised Timothy Castagne, had wrongfooted the visiting defence. Fulham were already a goal down when makeshift centre forward Mikel Merino saw a shot deflected into the net off Jorge Cuenca after Ethan Nwaneri had exposed the poor positioning of Antonee Robinson.
Marco Silva had opted to make three changes from the side that completely collapsed in Saturday’s FA Cup quarter final against Crystal Palace but the switch to a back three didn’t work as well as it did earlier in the season at Wolverhampton Wanderers. Fulham contained Arsenal adequately in a first half devoid of any attacking quality, but sacrificed their own attacking threat – until Rodrigo Muniz was brought on to beef up their presence in the final third. The Brazilian spurned a sitter at the far post, before making amends with a late low shot was unwittingly diverted into the net by William Saliba. There just wasn’t enough time to score a second; the visitors strongest spell of the game was literally too little, too late.
Any joy that Arsenal cut the gap to nine points was tempered by the loss of Gabriel, who could be a doubt for their Champions’ League clash with Real Madrid, and Jorrien Timber to injury. The Gunners had begun brightly with a deft touch from Merino sending Timber along the right flank only for the full back’s cross to elude everyone in a red shirt. Nwaneri drew the first save of the night from former Arsenal keeper Bernd Leno, but the German goalkeeper was helpless eight minutes before the half time break. Nwaneri ruthlessly rampaged past Robinson to work a crossing angle from the right and, although four purple shirts surrounded Merino, the Spaniard still shot at goal and got his reward – with a hefty deflection off Cuenca leaving Leno with no chance.
Silva’s system switch nullified the most dangerous of Arsenal’s creators, but also removed some of the potency of Fulham’s attacks. His side, who mustered just three touches in the opposition box in the first 45 minutes, were far more assertive after the interval with Raul Jimenez’s rasping drive pushed out by David Raya after excellent approach play by Adama Traore. Emile Smith Rowe almost buried the rebound, but the midfielder was denied a goal on his return to the Emirates by diligent defending from Miles Lewis-Skelly.
Leno did well to thwart Timber when the full-back had worked a clever one-two with Martin Odegaard, who had spooned a shot over from close range in the first half. Saliba nodded over from a free-kick before Cuenca got in the way of a header from Martinelli. Arsenal amped up the pressure and Saka needed just seven minutes to head home from close range after Fulham needlessly surrendered possession in the middle of the pitch.
Saka’s scoring return enlivened Fulham, who belatedly found the verve and intensity that had been missing earlier in the evening. Traore dragged a cross-cum-shot wide of the target and Muniz somehow headed wide of an open goal when it seemed easier to hit the target. The Brazilian did halve Fulham’s arrears deep into stoppage time from Ryan Sessegnon’s cross, but Fulham ran out of time with Sessegnon heading into the arms of Raya and Joachim Andersen’s late header drifting wide.
Silva seethed silently on the touchline – but had to later admit that the better side had won for the second week in succession.
ARSENAL (4-3-3): Raya; Timber (Trossard 77), Lewis-Skelly, Saliba, Gabriel (Kiwior 16); Odegaard, Partey, Ruce; Nwaneri (Saka 66), Martinelli, Merino. Subs (not used): Neto, Tierney, Trossard, Zinchenko, Gower.
BOOKED: Rice.
GOALS: Merino (37), Saka 72).
FULHAM (3-4-3): Leno; Diop (R, Sessegnon 77), Andersen, Cuenca; Castagne, A. Robinson, Berge, Lukic (Pereira 67), Smith Rowe (Iwobi 67), Traore (Willian 77); Jimenez (Muniz 77). Subs (not used): Benda, Bassey, Reed, Cairney.
BOOKED: Andersen, Lukic, A. Robinson.
GOAL: Muniz (90+4).
REFEREE: John Brooks (Leicestershire).
ATTENDANCE: 60,256
Need at least 5 new players midfield not good enough Diop Anderson not very good need new striker
Umm!
It’s all very well for Silva to seethe on the touchline but he should explain his suspect tactics to those of us fans seething as we were made to watch that abysmal first half.
I get him starting with five at the back. Fair enough. But, after almost 50 minutes of threatening nothing, not a single shot (on target or off target) and only entering the Arsenal box THREE times, why did he not change things up at halftime?
What’s with the manager waiting until an hour has gone before looking to make changes? Is there some mysterious rule that I don’t know about that only allows Marco Silva to consider switching things up after 60 minutes have passed? He does it EVERY week.
Even then, he continued with the extra man at the back until the 76th minute!
The game was done and dusted by then. Just don’t get it.
And Silva’s “use” of Ryan Sessegnon is tantamount to abuse. In the last three games, the poor guy has been expected to make cameo appearances and change the course of the game, playing as a left winger vs Spurs, a left back vs Crystal Palace and, now, a right winger vs Arsenal. It’s nonsensical. Yet he did his best to please and created our goal and managed to get a header on target -which is more than Muniz did when given the chance.
There is something fundamentally wrong with Silva’s tactics. Yes, we were much improved in the second half and we had a couple of “if only” moments but, dear God, it wouldn’t have taken much to be better than we were in the second half. But, as usual, because we had a couple of chances, they disguise the true nature of the team’s performance overall and, in particular, that of the players.
Our defence, apart from Leno and Diop, was very, very poor. Castagne was run ragged by Martinelli. Why Silva did not address this problem is another mystery. Traore should have given support to the Belgian. Cuenca had a nightmare of a game with most of his clearances finding Arsenal players. Andersen’s terrible pass for their second goal was unforgivable, highlighting the fact that he is nowhere near as good as the player he was in our relegation season. But, without doubt, the worst of the lot was Jedi who, in that first half, looked as if he had never seen a football before with some very weird foot work. He completely lost Nwaneri in the first half, allowing him to get a shot on target that, thankfully, Leno was equal to. But, lo and behold, he did it again for their first goal.
Apart from the fact that he’s our captain and is supposed to inspire his teammates (and doesn’t) he is clearly struggling and in a dire run of form. If Silva was “resting” five players from the Palace game, Robinson should have been included, especially if he is carrying an injury.
Oh, wait, I’m not supposed to criticise. Marco Silva has stabilised us as a Premiership team and I should be forever grateful.
Well I am. I appreciate everything he has done -up to a point. To date, as far as I’m aware, he has achieved nothing as a manager in England with four different Premiership teams inc us. So he’s not the Messiah some fans would have us believe. His tactics are questionable and, like the players he chooses, he’s not above scrutiny.
I beg to differ. Silva is trying to work miracles with what he has. Let us first of all admit that our team is nowhere near as good as the table suggests, and that we ending the season with such high expectations also because Silva is such a great manager. I just want to remind all that spent so much praise for Robinson and his supposedly done transfer to all of the big six, Robinson is again showing the decent fullback that he has always been. Not the new Marcelo but rather the usual quick fullback very lacking in defensive duties and quite ineffectual if he cannot make his trademark runs and crosses. Arsenal are miles better than us, and they are still challenging for the league fir a reason. It is unfair to single out anyone for not getting a result away at Emirates, especially our manager. I for one am of the opinion that if God forbid, Silva had to sign for another club next season, with our current players we would be going into a relegation battle.
Well said Simon. We would still be the yo-yo team without him. Just wish he could be more proactive and less reactive. I don’t know why he left it until the game was lost before he took the handbrake off.
Andrew, how much do you think it would cost to buy 5 new players who would make the team better, possibly 200 million. We have 2 good strikers who will score if given decent service. We need a really good number 10 who can take conrol of a game. We need a right back who can handle a pacey winger. Poor Timmy tried his best but was roasted all night by Martinelli without any back up.
Perhaps Marco Silva could arrange for Muniz to take some lessons from Saka in how to head the ball into an empty net. Just a thought.
I totally agree with Charles and wasn’t Silva the one who decided on the players who were signed in the transfer window and also the lack of a right back and striker.
Just a word in Silva’s defence.
I believe that his plans for this season were ruined by some key incidents: Reiss Nelson’s first hamstring injury and the disastrous injury to Kenny Tete.
Up until that period, we were creating chances and, with Tete, were more defensively sound and he was linking well with Traore or Iwobi on the right.
Tete is one of the best, man for man, markers in the Premiership and there is no way that Martinelli would have run rings around him like he did with Castagne.
With Nelson injured, Harry Wilson, stepped in and, even though he was not considered a first choice, came up with some crucial moments to keep us moving forward.
Unfortunately, he, too, picked up a serious injury and Nelson ‘s recovery was further delayed because of a devastating setback.
At a crucial time in the season, Iwobi was switched to the left -and it didn’t work, resulting in a loss of form that is still continuing and his support, Jedi, suffered an injury (only recently disclosed) and his own loss of form.
As well, Castagne, who had a decent first season with us, back in the team instead of Tete, seemed to be a shadow of his former self, unwilling to venture forward as often and opting for the safe, sideways or backward pass, as his first instinct.
Trying to address these , in January, we attempted to sign a decent winger but, ultimately had to settle for the return of Willian, even though he wasn’t fit and need a month or so to build up his fitness which, in turn, meant that we struggled on as before.
We also tried to sign Coufal from West Ham at right back although we left it, as usual, too late.
So, in fairness to Marco Silva, I believe all of the above have been frustrating for the manager and go a long way to explaining the imbalance in our team of late and our lack of creativity, especially at home.
None of that, however, satisfactorily explains why he seems unable to make changes, not for change’s sake, but when things are clearly not working, until after 60 minutes.
It doesn’t change the fact that, TWICE, we played into Oliver Glasner’s trap and had no counter tactic.
And, most recently, it does not explain why Silva waited until the 76th minute to revert to a back four at the Emirates when we were already 2-0 down.